Chocolate Cheese Macaroni

A relaxing afternoon..Lazing on the couch..Watching food network and watch the pretty and overly expressive (it is nice though) Giada De Laurentis cook with mascarpone cheese, ricotta cheese, pasta and yummy cake laden with chocolate. My stomach rumbles and craves for cheese and chocolate (though I kept reminding myself that I need to work out and lose some fat). Finally something flashed in my occasionally brilliant mind and EUREKA!!

I went into the kitchen and picked exactly 3 ingredients from the pantry. And a delicious Friday night dessert was ready in less than 15 minutes. Lets take a look at how this yummy delicacy is made.

Ingredients:
(Serves 2)

Elbow Macaroni - 1 cup
Nutella Chocolate and Hazelnut spread - 2 tbsp
Ricotta cheese - 1/3rd cup

Method:

• Add the elbow macaroni in a pan of boiling water and cool till it is Al-dente. Drain the pasta and transfer it into a bowl.

• Add 2 tbsp of Nutella and mix well. The Nutella will melt with the heat of the pasta and become a creamy sauce.

• Finally add the ricotta cheese and mix well.

• Add chopped walnuts and garnish. Serve it warm or chill it and serve it cold.
• Enjoy your Chocolate Cheese Macaroni!!

Notes:

• You can use any kind of pasta to make this dish.
• You can alter the amount of Nutella and cheese depending on your taste.
• Add a pinch of salt and a tsp of ghee or melted butter to the pasta water so that the pasta does not stick together.
• You can add chopped nuts of your choice.

Pudina Chutney

A very simple chutney that goes really well with Pakodas, chats and dosas.

Ingredients

Mint leaves - 1 cup
Cilantro - 1/2 cup
Garlic cloves - 4
Shallots - 2 (optional)
Red chillies / Green chillies - 5
Tomato - 1
Salt - To Taste

Method

• Mix all the ingredients together and puree in a mixer grinder or a food processor.
• Chutney is ready to be served.

Tempura Pakoda

Starting this new year with loads of wishes, warmth and love. A very Happy New Year to all my dear blogger friends. Hope this year brings good health, prosperity and well-being of all.

I have been out of action, AGAIN, for the past 3 weeks. This time it is not any reason related to academics. I was literally kicked out of the kitchen.Thanks to the LONG renovation work that was happening. 3 long weeks surviving on microwave food..Uffff...It was unimaginable. Finally, I managed to get rid of that nasty electric coil range and welcomed my new lovely gas range. Also, the kitchen looks really pretty by abandoning the tiled counter-tops and installed a black granite top. Love my kitchen!!

Today has been a really lazy day. Was on the couch watching TV all day (which is very unusual of me). I never watch TV for more than 2 hours straight. My palates were tickling, my stomach was grunting..I was in no mood at all to have good Indian wholesome meal. I needed some munchy-crunchy kinda stuff. IDEA...I remembered that I got some Tempura batter mix from the grocery store a couple of days back. I felt like trying something with the batter and giving it an Indian Twist. And Voila..It worked..Yummy tempura onion pakoda..Goes perfect with some pudina chutney or a spring roll dip. Let check out how I made it.

(Kindly excuse me this time...I was so engrossed in making the pakodas and eating them that my camera had no role to play until the last pieces were the only ones left out and they were really lucky to be captured).

Ingredients
Tempura Batter Mix - 1 cup
Ice cold water - Approx. 2/3rd cup (May vary)
Salt - To taste
Red pepper flakes - 1 tsp
Black pepper powder - 1 tsp
Red Onions - 1 medium sized (finely chopped)
Spring onions - 2 sprigs (finely chopped)
Mint leaves - About 10 (Finely chopped)
Cilantro - A handful (Finely chopped)
Green chillies - 2 small - optional (I used Thai) (Finely chopped)
Oil - To fry

Method

• Mix the tempura batter as per the instructions on the box.
• Mix all the chopped veggies and add all the other spices.
• Whisk the veggies and spices well in the batter.
• Heat Canola/vegetable oil in a pan. Using a spoon add the batter into the oil.
• Fry until light golden brown.
• Serve hot with Pudina Chutney and Spring roll dipping sauce.

Notes

• Using greed chillies and/or red pepper flakes is optional. You can use either of them or both. I prefer spicy pakodas. So I used both.
• You can alter the ingredients I used like the choice of veggies. You can be creative and can use the veggies of your choice. But trust me this one is truly awesome...